


Cherry Gumballs

by kyaappucino, queen_sinnamon



Series: Cherry Gumballs [1]
Category: VIXX
Genre: Familial Relationships, Gen, Vixx AU: Music Producer Taekwoon & Dancer/Dance Instructor Hakyeon, child!hongbin, child!jaehwan, child!ravi, child!sanhyuk, life in the cha-jung household, part of a series, platonic, where they're neo's kids haha
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-20
Updated: 2016-03-20
Packaged: 2018-05-27 21:06:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6300391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kyaappucino/pseuds/kyaappucino, https://archiveofourown.org/users/queen_sinnamon/pseuds/queen_sinnamon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ken likes cherry gumballs, hides them so that his brothers won’t eat them all. Wonshik swipes a few for Hongbin, and Hongbin covers up for Wonshik. Hyuk and Taekwoon are confused while Hakyeon stews in jealousy. The moral lesson is, stay away from cherry gumballs - they have the power to tear families apart.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cherry Gumballs

Cherry gumballs. They were sweet and stained your lips if you wet the enameled exterior and rubbed it on, and so cheap that even kindergartners could afford them with spare change found around the house.

The Cha-Jung children, at least the three old enough to go to school, were given just a few hundred won each everyday, just enough to buy them small snacks in case they got hungry, and Ken, the eldest, had taken to hoarding cherry gums whenever he had a few coins to spare. He kept them in a small jar in his closet–Otherwise, his brothers would wipe them all out in under an hour–and occasionally took a few pieces, enjoying his candy. He liked how the food coloring made his thick lips look fuller.

It was late afternoon now, and his brothers had probably gone on a nap with their dad in the baby room. It was the perfect time for Ken to enjoy junk food without anyone either swiping it off of him or teasing him about having “pretty, girly, kissy lips.” He loved his brothers, and he couldn’t see himself without them in his life, but there were just those times when even a primary schooler needed some time alone.

He dug his little jar of gumballs from where he hid it underneath his play clothes, and very nearly dropped it on the floor.

* * *

 

“Mwah~!” Hongbin winked and blew a kiss at his own reflection in the big mirror in their parents’ bedroom. His lips and fingertips were stained red from the cherry gum he had wetted and rubbed on his skin. It amused him how his face, along with his long, curly hair and a little coloring, could make him look so much like a girl. Oftentimes, that annoyed him, but sometimes that led to good things too. Pigtails even fooled his parents into thinking he was a girl, leading to his adoption. 

This time was not one of those times, he found, as Ken’s high-pitched scream rang throughout the house, probably waking his dad and other brothers. “WHO. STOLE. MY. GUM?!” he heard Ken yell, followed by the sound of feet stomping on the wooden floor. 

Hongbin grabbed the closest thing he could find and hastily wiped off the stain on his lips, carelessly tossing it to the laundry basket before running off.

Taekwoon’s white dress shirt, now crumpled, the red stains hidden in the folds, landed neatly in the laundry basket.

* * *

Taekwoon found Hongbin in the attic, lounging on the windowsill with his tablet on his lap, earphones secure in his ears. The room smelled strangely of soap instead of dust. The pretty boy didn’t even appear to notice when Taekwoon came in, followed by Ken who was glaring daggers at him, arms crossed and cheeks puffed indignantly. Wonshik peeked in from the doorway, his tiny eyes made even tinier by sleep. Hyuk remained undisturbed in the nursery.

“Hongbin-ah,” Taekwoon called and, when the boy didn’t respond, Taekwoon tapped him on the shoulder. Hongbin finally looked up, eyes wide in curiosity, as he removed his earphones. “Yes, appa?” 

“You took it, I _know_ you did,” Ken threw at Hongbin, to which the flower boy reacted with a puzzled look. Taekwoon shushed their eldest with one look, and Ken shut his mouth, arms crossed over his chest, feet tapping impatiently. Hongbin turned his questioning stare to their father. “Did something happen?”

Taekwoon wasn’t sure what to make of the entire situation. Wonshik had been with him the entire afternoon, and the only one Ken could accuse of taking his candies was Hongbin. Hongbin was a clever child and the staff from the orphanage had warned them that he had a gift for tricks, and wriggling out of them, but Taekwoon didn’t want to throw him the blame immediately. He wanted their household to be a fair one.

“Kennie says something of his went missing,” Taekwoon started to explain.

“My gum! My jar was full this morning,” Ken inserted and held up a small jar. Several red gumballs rolled in it. “And now it’s just this. You took them, didn’t you?”

At first, Hongbin looked surprised, as if it was his first time seeing that jar, then he frowned. He heard a small squeak and his eyes flickered up to somewhere beyond Ken and Taekwoon, but only for a fraction of a second. He looked back at Ken, Taekwoon, and back, and his hands went up to cover his face.

Taekwoon noticed how Hongbin flashed a look behind them but, when he turned around to check, he saw only the empty hall. He thought Wonshik had followed them up here? Maybe not. “Hongbin-ah…” He knelt down to Hongbin’s height, gently prying his hands away from his face. When the boy finally allowed his hands to be removed, Taekwoon found his eyes shiny with tears, his lips trembling, and all Taekwoon wanted to do was hold him and tell him that it was going to be okay, but he couldn’t. Not yet. “Did you take your brother’s candy?”

A whimper escaped Hongbin’s parted lips as his eyes darted from Taekwoon to Ken and back, the movement causing his tears to spill over. “I…I’m sorry, I just…” His whimpers turned into sobs and his hands came up to his face again, muffling his voice. “I-I’m so…so sorry, Ken…Ken-hyung.” 

It was finally time for Taekwoon to pull the boy close and hug him, soothingly patting his head. He looked over at Ken, who was struggling to keep his frown on, his eyes glossed. “O-ottokaji…” Ken muttered under his breath, fighting back sobs of his own, and Taekwoon gestured for him to come close with his free hand. Ken dropped his jar of gumballs and ran to his father, flinging his arms around him and his crying brother.

* * *

Naptime was one of Wonshik’s favorite moments in the Cha-Jung household, because that was when the children could decide where to sleep. Usually, Ken would be between Wonshik and Hongbin, but for today Ken had decided to sleep in Hakyeon and Taekwoon’s bedroom. As long as Ken stayed on the bed and didn’t touch anything, Taekwoon saw no reason to forbid his eldest son from sleeping in their room.

Wonshik’s favorite place to sleep was on the couch, because it folded out to a bed. He had easy access to the kitchen if he woke up hungry, and he often did, and he could roll around in his sleep without hitting anyone or anything. Ken had complained a few times that Wonshik punched him in his sleep, and not only once had Wonshik woken up with an aching foot from kicking the wall or the safety bar appa had installed on his bed. The sofa-bed let him him sleep through the afternoon, but not today as a small body, smelling faintly of soap, lied beside him, pulling him back from the limbo between sleep and waking.

Wonshik knew who it was even without looking but he cracked his eyes open anyway and was greeted by Hongbin’s large smile. Normally, he would have returned that with a sleepy smile and snuggled up to his brother, but when he didn’t move and Hongbin lifted his arm to drape over him, Wonshik turned around.

“Are you still not talking to me? It’s been days.” Hongbin asked softly, and Wonshik could hear the hurt in his voice. It was unlike him to ever reject Hongbin. They were always together for everything, shared everything, even the nurses at the orphanage knew that. Hongbin probably didn’t even know if Wonshik was even capable of saying no to him.

 “Why didn’t you tell appa?” Wonshik muttered, his voice further muffled by his blankie so Hongbin had to lean over to hear him. “You knew it was me. I gave you the candy.” Hongbin bit his lip and nudged at Wonshik until he allowed himself to be rolled so he could look in his eyes. Wonshik’s small lips were in full pout mode, eyes glistening with tears, and Hongbin sighed. He thought that Shikkie would be happy to avoid having to do extra chores, but all Wonshik had done was hover around Hongbin as he cleaned their room.

“I didn’t want you to get in trouble,”  was all Hongbin said, looking away, cheeks flushing pink. Wonshik was irritated at that; Hongbin had gotten his reputation for tricks around the orphanage precisely because every single time he was questioned, all Hongbin did was lie so blatantly obviously that the blame could only be pinned on him. The nurses had never known about Wonshik’s nimble fingers, how he could quickly tie and untie knots to get into the pantry for cookies. And it tore Wonshik’s heart apart every time Hongbin was made to do chores or was punished just to spare him.

It’s not that Wonshik had never tried to own up to it. He did, he really did, but he was known as the sweet crybaby that the pretty boy had to take care of, so whenever Wonshik told the nurses that it was actually he who had started everything, they had just smiled and said softly, “We know you love Hongbin very much, Shikkah, but he already confessed. You don’t have to share the blame.”

 _But I want to_ , he would think rebelliously. **_I_** _did it._

“That’s not fair, Bin-ah! You always get hurt because of me. It’s not fair.” Wonshik said as he sat up, pouting at Hongbin. “You could’ve been with that rich family, or that one with the pretty mommy, or that–” Wonshik would have gone on, if only he didn’t notice how Hongbin’s eyes narrowed coldly, his mouth in a straight line. He rarely saw that face but, whenever he did, he knew Hongbin was close to yelling.

It wasn’t a secret that Hongbin had almost been adopted plenty of times. It was easy for him. He was handsome and friendly, and childless families fell in love with him instantly, but he kicked and screamed whenever he was parted from Wonshik. Several times, he’d been taken away, and Wonshik had been left friendless and inconsolable. He thought he would never see Hongbin again, but Hongbin always managed to come back somehow. He would be returned to the orphanage a few days, sometimes a week or two, later, quiet and sullen, and refused to speak until his foster parents had left and he was reunited with Wonshik.

It made Wonshik happy, of course, but now that he was a little older, he realized that Hongbin had refused a lot of chances to be with a happy family, for him. “You even told Ken-hyung that I’d cry all night if you didn’t come with me.” Wonshik’s tone was loving, but sad. His brother frowned. His efforts were supposed to make Wonshik happy. Unless someone was willing to take both of them, Hongbin had thought back then, there was _no way_ he was going to behave.  “Don’t you want us together?”

“I do…but why?” Wonshik was really curious, now. It wasn’t really something Hongbin could explain, but after being with Wonshik for so long, it just didn’t feel right to leave without him. He remembered asking numerous foster parents if they’d take Shikkie, but each time he was denied, it just steeled his resolve to go back. Wonshik was gentle and loving. He, of all the kids in the orphanage, should have been adopted by a loving couple as soon as they saw him, while Hongbin…Hongbin was handsome. It was something he accepted, and he knew he was more than that, but he never understood why he could be adopted at the drop of a hat, while Shikkie just stayed where he was, friendless and alone. _That_ wasn’t fair.

So Hongbin replied simply, “Because if you were asked to clean, it would take twice as long to finish.” Wonshik stared at him, disbelieving, but when the giggle bubbled up his throat, he didn’t resist it. He hugged his brother and lied down, though he was too happy to go back to his nap.

**Author's Note:**

> Part 1 of the Cherry Gumball Series, written by myself and a good friend of mine, known as admin Q (http://queensinnamon.tumblr.com), who's given me permission to post this here.
> 
> -
> 
> Thank you for reading! ♥  
> If you enjoyed, liked, or loved this story, please let me know by leaving a comment, kudos, or a little gift to us through [here](http://paypal.me/ChaJungPiggybank)\--Please do note if it's a gift for the Cha-Jung Household. ♥
> 
> We're not requiring you to do any of that, it's completely up to you. We would just be very thankful for any and all kinds of feedback.
> 
> Have a nice day! ♥


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